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President Barack Obama called rap star Kanye West “a jackass.” Vice President Joe Biden told a senator to “Gimme a f—-ing break!” Economic adviser Christina Romer declared that Americans had yet to have their "holy s—-” moment over the economy. Those who pay attention to political rhetoric say an unusual amount of profanity has emanated from this White House – even without counting famously colorful White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. But before this statement becomes fodder for yet another partisan debate (with conservatives saying Obama is disgracing the presidency, and liberals that the media are once again being...

[audio player] You never know what’s going to come out of Joe Biden’s mouth. But we’ll bet you didn’t expect this. Biden was a Union Station yesterday, bragging up Obama’s $1.3 billion “investment” in train stations and rail lines. The error-prone vice president was apparently unaware of a near-by microphone. When one of his former Senate colleagues called him “Mr. Vice President,” Biden replied with what is reportedly one of his favorite phrases:......

A few months ago, actor Christian Bale went nuts while filming “Terminator Salvation.” Some poor lighting guy made the mistake of walking into a shot while cameras were rolling. Bale stopped production while he publicly humiliated the poor guy, repeatedly berated him in the crudest possible terms, and despite the man’s apologies, threatened to beat him to a pulp. TMZ.com got its hands on a tape of the incident. If you choose to listen, be prepared for some major league swearing. You’ll hear Bale screaming obscenities over and over again and threatening to quit if the guy isn’t fired. According...

When Dawn Herb’s toilet overflowed, it cost her nothing to fix. The city of Scranton, however, will pay $19,000 to avoid a lawsuit from Ms. Herb, who was charged with disorderly conduct last October for swearing at the malfunctioning piece of porcelain. A judge later dismissed the charge, saying Ms. Herb’s language, however offensive, was protected as free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union and Barry Dyller, Ms. Herb’s attorney, announced the settlement Wednesday. The money will cover Ms. Herb’s legal expenses, but Mr. Dyller said it also should send a message that there’s a price to pay for violating...

New Study Shows Broadcast TV Family Hour Fare Filthier Than Ever Fox is the worst broadcast network overall LOS ANGELES, September 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new Parents Television Council study of Family Hour programming conclusively shows that children watching television during the first hour of prime time are assaulted by violence, profanity or sexual content once every 3.5 minutes of non-commercial airtime. During the 2006-2007 study period, almost 90% of the 208 television shows reviewed contained objectionable content. The PTC found that Fox is the worst broadcast network overall, noting its 20.78 instances of violent, profane and sexual content...

Melbourne, Australia (AHN) - The foul-mouthed priest who was caught on camera hurling abuse at a group of teenagers has been suspended by the Catholic Church. The Archbishop of Melbourne, the Most Reverend Denis Hart, announced the suspension of Reverend Monsignor Geoffrey Baron on Tuesday afternoon. Baron was caught racially abusing skateboarding teenagers outside St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. Although the incident occurred about a year ago, it was brought to light only recently by YouTube. Popular video-sharing site YouTube has since removed the footage of the senior Catholic priest, who has expressed shame and embarrassment at his behavior. In...

Words that once shocked and surprised have become standard expressions, but do we really need to use the F-word in every sentence?   You turn on the TV nowadays and it's like being in a pub shortly before closing time, when alcohol has lingered long enough in the body to reduce conversations to a noun, a verb and numerous derivatives of the F-word. There's no point in getting too Daily Mail about it I suppose but, do we really need so many F-words on the television?Today it's almost a given that you'll hear this expletive and many like it,...

Insiders call for rap to cut the cursing By Tom Leonard in New York Last Updated: 4:15am BST 25/04/2007 Senior figures in the world of hip-hop music have called on the record industry and broadcasters to help clean up rap's foul-mouthed image by removing the words "bitch", "ho" and "nigger" from lyrics. Russell Simmons, who co-founded the record label Def Jam, expressed concern about the "growing public outrage" over the widespread use of such words in rap music. They should be considered "extreme curse words" and music industry executives should be unable to "arbitrarily" decide if they are permitted in...

DETROIT (AP) - An officer who arrested a man for cursing in a public meeting violated the man's right to free speech, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's decision that Montrose Township police officer Stephen Robinson had probable cause to arrest Thomas Leonard in 2002 when Leonard cursed while addressing the township board. "It cannot be seriously contended that any reasonable peace officer, or citizen, for that matter, would believe that mild profanity while peacefully advocating a political position could constitute a criminal act," the three-judge panel wrote in...

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A coach in a videotaped Pee Wee football brawl was charged with misdemeanor assault Tuesday, prosecutors said. An amateur video shows Robert Watson, 39, charging onto a field and tackling an 18-year-old referee. The video goes on to show a mob of parents surrounding them in a melee. Assistant District Attorney James Sales said prosecutors had been waiting for photos relating to the brawl from the Corpus Christi Police Department. "You always like to see the injury," he said. "Basically, it's a black eye." The video, taken during a Nov. 4 Super Bowl game of 5-...

Dear Pauline and Rob: What do you think about President Bush's use of profanity at the Group of Eight summit? Embarrassed Dear Embarrassed: Profanity surely has its place; locking your finger in the car door is a #%**#! of an example. The business place – and that's what the G-8 summit is for the president – is not such a place. Profanity in the workplace is offensive to all but the speaker and potentially career-threatening. It reflects poorly on the speaker, even as the speaker believes the reverse is true. Our rule of thumb is to always communicate at work...

CNSNews.com) - The California Democrat currently acting as ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee reportedly launched a profane verbal assault on two employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs after they labeled a press conference held outside the VA headquarters Tuesday a "publicity stunt." Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) is described as "uttering obscenities" at the VA employees in one media account. Filner joined other Democrats Tuesday outside the VA's main offices to criticize VA Secretary Jim Nicholson for waiting three weeks to inform the public about the theft of a computer disc drive that contained the names, birthdates...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Stressed Miami drivers speed, tailgate and cut off other drivers so frequently that it has earned the city the title of worst road rage in a survey released Tuesday. Norwalk, Conn.-based AutoVantage, an automobile membership club offering travel services and roadside assistance, also listed Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles and Boston among the top five cities for rude driving in its first "In the Driver's Seat Road Rage Survey." "The advent of road rage is part of every day life," said Todd Smith, director of corporate communications for AutoVantage's parent company, Affinion Group, which has offices in...

The recently released collection of saying by Hillary Clinton titled I’ve Always Been a Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton in Her Own Words, quotes the New York Senator as addressing her Arkansas staff thus: Where is the goddamn f**ing flag?... I want the goddamn f*ing flag up every f*ing morning at f**ing sunrise. This is not the first time we hear of Mrs. Clinton’s penchant for foul language. Several of her close associates have indicated that such niceties figure prominently in her private speech. Completely indecorous and unladylike, it is sharply repulsive to hear any woman speak in this fashion. It...

Yes, this is video of a few of our guys under attack by KIDS WITH ROCKS. But watch it, and listen... it is both scary and funny. God bless the guy who taped this. Google Video Link

Incensed by what it sees as a virtual pandemic of verbal vulgarity issuing from the diverse likes of Howard Stern, Bono of U2 and Robert Novak, the United States Senate is poised to consider a bill that would sharply increase the penalty for obscenity on the air. By raising the fines that would be levied against offending broadcasters some fifteenfold, to a fee of about $500,000 per crudity broadcast, and by threatening to revoke the licenses of repeat polluters, the Senate seeks to return to the public square the gentler tenor of yesteryear, when seldom were heard any scurrilous words,...

Last Friday night, July 8, around 8:14 p.m. I happened during the commercial break at WABC to turn the dial to WLIB 1190 kHz the Air Amerika flagship station and hear this fuming, screaching female voice ranting and spewing venom. I was curious who is it about. Didn't have to wait too long. Turned out that it was Jeanine Garogfalo taking off at Ben Stein, calling him names, among other things also "this pr1ck..." Wow! That was a new one on the radio for me. I was just wondering if this is FCC "allowed" expression and if they have a...

A retiree who got fed up when a cell-phone user refused to clean up his language in a restaurant in July got three months' probation Tuesday. Unlike many defendants who walk into Ramsey County District Judge Paulette Flynn's courtroom to plead guilty to a crime, 79-year-old Bill W. Stevenson got thumbs-up signs from attorneys and others in the court who identified with his motives, if not his actions. "I felt a lot of sympathy, and they were giving me the thumbs-up when I walked out of the courtroom," Stevenson said after pleading guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct....

Vice President Dick Cheney doesn't own the market on swearwords like the F-bomb he dropped on Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. Turns out President Bush has quite the mouth, following in a rich tradition of cussing presidents. "He uses the 'F' word as an adjective, a verb, and a noun," says one adviser. Ditto for the "S" word. But not often in anger. "It's more conversational," adds the insider, "like how guys talk." In a White House that prides itself on self-control, Bush doesn't swear much in the Oval Office and never in front of his wife or new acquaintances. "It's...

<p>Call it the potty-mouth primary.     With two Democratic presidential candidates uttering obscenities in public forums this month and the nine-candidate field trying to one-up each other in attacking President Bush, some observers are wondering whether political discourse is hitting new lows in coarseness.     Wesley Clark, talking to a man at a forum in New Hampshire this weekend, told the man live on C-SPAN that if Mr. Bush or Democrats questioned his commitment to the military and veterans, he would kick the spit out of them. Only the retired Army general didn't say "spit."     And Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, in an interview with Rolling Stone published this month, said he never thought the president would go and muck up reconstruction in Iraq. Only he didn't say "muck."     "The acceptable language has probably become slightly rawer over time, and maybe that's what we're seeing now," said Stephen Hess, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "The Little Book of Campaign Etiquette."     He said campaigns are harsher or gentler depending on the "ideological heat of the moment," and war often brings hotter times, meaning that 1968 would be much more heated than 1988.     "I do think we're at a moment where discourse is rough — that is, a separation between positions, and people feel very strongly about them," he said.     In this weekend's incident, Mr. Clark was asked by the man what he would do if Mr. Bush or the Democrats challenged him on his support for veterans. After responding with his fighting words, Mr. Clark then said, "I hope that's not on television."     A television camera from C-SPAN, the cable public-programming network, had followed Mr. Clark as he worked the crowd, just as it has with other candidates throughout the campaign, and aired the exchange live. It since has been replayed by other TV news programs.     Clark campaign spokesman Bill Buck said Mr. Clark's remark was that of a "military man and a fighter."     "He'll stand up to President Bush or any of the administration's chicken hawks that attack his patriotism, military record or commitment to veterans," he said.     He also said the comments weren't any rougher than what Mr. Bush said about then-New York Times reporter Adam Clymer in the 2000 campaign. In that instance, Mr. Bush was on a stage and, in an exchange not heard by the crowd but picked up by a television microphone, leaned over to Dick Cheney and famously characterized the reporter's personality.     Mr. Hess and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, both said it's important to distinguish between utterances such as Mr. Bush's, that were not meant to be public, and Mr. Kerry's, which was.     "I felt that was quite deliberate, and done for a political purpose, and the calculation bothered me almost as much as the use of the word, which I can hear in any movie theater," Mr. Hess said.     Ms. Jamieson said one part of the equation is that technology now allows listeners and viewers to get much closer to the action and hear things that used to be impossible to hear.     "It's possible things were said in the past and said in the present. But now we hear them," she said.     "By all accounts, John Kennedy in private had a rich and colorful vocabulary that was not reflected in public, which is the reason for saying you've got to make this public-private distinction," she said.     Meanwhile, Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and the front-runner for his party's presidential nomination, has been criticized for his mouth getting out ahead of the party. Most recently, he took some shots for saying he knew he was the front-runner "because I keep picking buckshot out of my rear end all the time."     But Ms. Jamieson said Mr. Dean deserves a pass.     "The question is, what would you prefer he say? He's already using a euphemism for a euphemism," she said.     As for his harsh criticism of Mr. Bush, she said it doesn't really compare with the stranger attacks of the modern political era, including Mr. Bush's father calling Bill Clinton a "bozo" and Al Gore "ozone man" during the 1992 campaign.     "By historical markers, there's nothing in this race that stands out," she said.     About six years ago, her organization compiled a "vulgarity index" and catalogued the vulgarities used on the House and Senate floors during debates, including the same sort of words used by Mr. Clark this weekend.     Ms. Jamieson said this year's campaign certainly hasn't dropped below some of the exchanges that took place during the impeachment proceedings against Mr. Clinton.     Still, Mr. Hess said outside of campaigns, the overall content of political discussion has become emptier, and said he was struck by that point while looking at a recent best-seller nonfiction list.     "Five [of the top books] were people shouting at each other. Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore, Al Franken and Sean Hannity," he said. "Shouting from both sides. That to me is a carryover, maybe from talk radio, but more from 24-hour cable news."</p>